US6945644B2 - Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen - Google Patents

Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen Download PDF

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Publication number
US6945644B2
US6945644B2 US10/627,150 US62715003A US6945644B2 US 6945644 B2 US6945644 B2 US 6945644B2 US 62715003 A US62715003 A US 62715003A US 6945644 B2 US6945644 B2 US 6945644B2
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Prior art keywords
ink
organic surfactant
jet
surfactant phase
phase
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Expired - Fee Related, expires
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US10/627,150
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English (en)
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US20050018025A1 (en
Inventor
Alexey S Kabalnov
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Hewlett Packard Development Co LP
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Hewlett Packard Development Co LP
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Priority to US10/627,150 priority Critical patent/US6945644B2/en
Assigned to HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P. reassignment HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: KABALNOV, ALEXEY S.
Priority to EP04009547A priority patent/EP1500510B1/de
Priority to DE602004003867T priority patent/DE602004003867T2/de
Priority to JP2004216701A priority patent/JP4115971B2/ja
Publication of US20050018025A1 publication Critical patent/US20050018025A1/en
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/165—Prevention or detection of nozzle clogging, e.g. cleaning, capping or moistening for nozzles

Definitions

  • the field relates to forming a protective cushion to slow down evaporation and prevent clogging in an inactive ink-jet printhead.
  • the ink firing chamber of the pen can be heated and the inks can be repeatedly spit in a spittoon, with intermittent wiping of the pen (sometimes, with a solvent such as glycerol or polyethylene glycol (PEG)).
  • the pen can be actively primed by a pump.
  • adding co-solvents (humectants) and surfactants helps to slow down crusting of ink components by reducing evaporation, such cosolvents and surfactants occasionally even forming a soft gel plug of the solvent at the nozzle. All of these ways of dealing with the pen recovery problem are either time-consuming, not consistently effective or both.
  • the present invention relates to a method of forming a protective cushion to slow down evaporation and prevent clogging in an inactive ink-jet printhead, the inactive ink-jet printhead comprised of at least one ink firing chamber having an opening to at least one nozzle, the method comprising the steps of:
  • the present invention also relates to a system to slow down evaporation and prevent clogging in an inactive ink-jet printhead by forming a protective cushion covering an opening of at least one ink-jet nozzle in at least one ink firing chamber, the at least one ink firing chamber comprising:
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic, partially broken away perspective view of a portion of an embodiment of an ink jet printhead.
  • FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the invention having a series of four cross section views of one ink firing chamber as the chamber progresses through the steps of the present invention.
  • the present inventor has discovered a way to induce the formation of an organic cushion covering the nozzle in an ink firing chamber by the separation of the ink vehicle from the ink colorant in either dye-based or pigment-based ink. This is done by the abrupt heating up of the ink firing chamber to the point at which the ink vehicle phase separates into two layers.
  • the lower layer more dense than the upper layer, is formulated in such a way that it shows poor solubility for crusting components in the inks and has a low viscosity and vapor pressure. It thus serves as a protective layer or cushion that will slow down the evaporation from the pen, as well as, in the case of pigment-based inks, stop pigment from settling in the bottom layer.
  • clouding temperature can be adjusted by adding co-surfactants, co-solvents, oils and electrolytes (M. Kahlweit R. Strey, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl., v. 24, p 654, 1985).
  • “Clouded” solutions of surfactants tend to separate with time into two distinct layers. Whether or not the surfactant phase forms on the top or on the bottom depends on the relative densities of the surfactant and water. Typically, hydrocarbon surfactants are less dense than water and the surfactant phase forms on the top. However, if the surfactant contains atoms with higher atomic weight, such as fluorine, chlorine or bromine, the surfactant layer will form on the bottom.
  • the density of the surfactant phase can be additionally adjusted by solubilizing some amount of an oil in the surfactant. Again, hydrocarbon oils tend to have a density that is lower than that of water.
  • halocarbons such as chloro, fluoro and bromocarbons tend to be more dense than water and can increase the density of the surfactant phase.
  • the solubility of dyes/pigments in the surfactant phase should be carefully adjusted in such a way that the colorant is depleted from the surfactant phase.
  • the dyes/pigments, as well as inorganic salt additives used in ink-jet are water-soluble and are expected to be depleted from the surfactant phase that overall has a more hydrophobic environment than the aqueous solution.
  • the ink drop ejection in the ink firing chamber is caused by the abrupt heating and boiling of the ink on a resistor. It also has been known in the art that the resistors can be utilized for increasing the temperature in the firing chamber without causing the drop ejection, known as pulse warming.
  • Pulse warming is a technique used to warm the printhead temperature before printing and maintain it during printing thereby ensuring consistent drop volume. Pulse warming uses the same hardware that is used to fire the printhead during printing with one important difference—the pulse width is too small to cause ink to eject, as described in e.g., EP 1093918A2.
  • ink-jet inks there are several commercial ink-jet inks that tend to cloud at elevated temperatures.
  • color inks used in 700-800 series Deskjet printers produced by Hewlett Packard cloud between about 40 and 95° C. Clouding of inks at these temperatures as such does not preclude them from being used in thermal ink-jet, insofar as the normal temperature of the firing chamber remains below the cloud point. This is despite the fact that inks can get as hot as 200° C. without clouding when the turn on energy (TOE) is applied to the resistor in the ink chamber during the firing event.
  • TOE turn on energy
  • the firing event does not cause a clouding problem, because clouding does not have enough time to develop during the interval that the ink chamber temperature is at 200° C.
  • Such ink clouding at 40-95° C. can be artificially induced by pulse-warming the ink chamber for several seconds. This should be avoided during the normal pen cycle.
  • sending voltage below the turn-on energy to the resistor for several seconds to obtain an ink chamber temperature of 40-95° C., and in a preferred embodiment, 60-80° C. induces the separation of ink-jet ink to form a protective cushion of the organic surfactant phase of the ink solvents which covers the inner opening of the nozzle.
  • This protective cushion on the nozzle prevents evaporation and crusting during the time the inkjet printhead is inactive and can be spit out of the nozzle when printing activity of the printhead resumes.
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic partially broken away perspective view of a non-limiting embodiment of an inkjet printhead, specifically showing the structure of an ink chamber including various structures related to the present invention.
  • the ink chambers 19 are more particularly disposed over respective ink firing heater resistors 56 , and each ink chamber 19 is defined by interconnected edges and walls of a chamber opening formed in the barrier layer 12 which is laminated to the thin film substructure 11 .
  • the ink channels 29 are defined by further openings formed in the barrier layer 12 , and are integrally joined to respective ink firing chambers 19 .
  • the ink channels 29 open towards a feed edge of an adjacent ink feed slot 71 and receive ink from such ink feed slot.
  • the orifice plate 13 includes orifices or nozzles 21 disposed over respective ink chambers 19 , such that each ink firing heater resistor 56 , an associated ink chamber 19 , and an associated orifice 21 are aligned.
  • an inkjet printer is built so that if the user opens the printer lid or the pen compartment latch, it activates a switch in the printhead.
  • the switch switches on the resistors in the ink chambers.
  • the resistors heat up and induce a phase separation of the ink in the ink chamber.
  • the low vapor pressure solvent settles down at the nozzle bore and forms a protective “cushion” that is substantially devoid of the crusting components of the ink.
  • an inkjet printer is built so that if the pen is passive for some time, e.g., 30 minutes of sitting on the cap without printing, the printer heats up the pen and the makes the organic solvent “cushion” at the bottom of the nozzle.
  • FIG. 2 shows four different stages in a side view of an ink firing chamber 2 in the present invention.
  • the resistor 1 connected to the top inside surface of the chamber 2 and the nozzle 4 which consists of an opening between the inside and outside of the chamber 2 at the bottom of the chamber 2 .
  • Each stage also shows the presence of ink 3 inside the chamber 2 .
  • the chamber 2 is heated 7 .
  • drops 5 of organic phase appear in the ink 3 .
  • time 8 passes.
  • the drops 5 of organic phase have formed a protective cushion 6 at the bottom of the chamber 2 , covering the nozzle 4 opening.
  • the protective cushion 6 has been spit 9 out of the ink chamber 2 .
  • the fourth stage appears as before in the first stage, with ink 3 in the chamber 2 without drops 5 of organic phase or cushion 6 .
  • solvents that can be used in the ink can be chosen especially for their enhancement of the organic cushion forming process.
  • Solvents selected from poly(ethylene oxide) derivatives and poly(propylene oxide) derivatives have been found to be effective.
  • Low polarity oils such as hydrocarbons, fluorocarbons and siloxanes can also be used effectively.
  • surfactants selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon surfactants, fluorocarbon surfactants and siloxane surfactants can also be chosen.
  • Various fluorinated solvents and solvents derivatized from siloxane are also effective because they are relatively poor solvents for dyes or pigments.
  • the organic surfactant phase of the ink has a density above 1.1 g/cm 3 and the ink colorant phase should have a lower density than the ink vehicle phase.
  • the organic surfactant tends to settle in the ink firing chamber while the ink vehicle phase floats above.
  • the following yellow ink has been prepared by mixing the components in a test-tube:
  • the ink were homogeneous and transparent as judged visually.
  • the inks were gradually heated on the water bath in a 5-ml test-tube.
  • the ink showed clouding at 45 C with the organic phase forming at the bottom of the test-tube.
  • the phase was depleted in the yellow dye, as judged visually.

Landscapes

  • Ink Jet (AREA)
  • Inks, Pencil-Leads, Or Crayons (AREA)
  • Ink Jet Recording Methods And Recording Media Thereof (AREA)
US10/627,150 2003-07-24 2003-07-24 Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen Expired - Fee Related US6945644B2 (en)

Priority Applications (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US10/627,150 US6945644B2 (en) 2003-07-24 2003-07-24 Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen
EP04009547A EP1500510B1 (de) 2003-07-24 2004-04-22 Thermisch induzierte Phasentrennung zur Wiederherstellung des Tintenstrahldruckkopfes
DE602004003867T DE602004003867T2 (de) 2003-07-24 2004-04-22 Thermisch induzierte Phasentrennung zur Wiederherstellung des Tintenstrahldruckkopfes
JP2004216701A JP4115971B2 (ja) 2003-07-24 2004-07-26 インクジェットペンを復旧するために相分離を熱的に誘発する方法

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US10/627,150 US6945644B2 (en) 2003-07-24 2003-07-24 Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen

Publications (2)

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US20050018025A1 US20050018025A1 (en) 2005-01-27
US6945644B2 true US6945644B2 (en) 2005-09-20

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US10/627,150 Expired - Fee Related US6945644B2 (en) 2003-07-24 2003-07-24 Thermally induced phase separation to recover ink-jet pen

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US (1) US6945644B2 (de)
EP (1) EP1500510B1 (de)
JP (1) JP4115971B2 (de)
DE (1) DE602004003867T2 (de)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20080259114A1 (en) * 2007-04-20 2008-10-23 Hewlett-Packard Development Company Lp Print head cleaning fluid condensation
US7927416B2 (en) 2006-10-31 2011-04-19 Sensient Colors Inc. Modified pigments and methods for making and using the same
US7964033B2 (en) 2007-08-23 2011-06-21 Sensient Colors Llc Self-dispersed pigments and methods for making and using the same
US9221986B2 (en) 2009-04-07 2015-12-29 Sensient Colors Llc Self-dispersing particles and methods for making and using the same

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0767225A2 (de) 1995-10-06 1997-04-09 Seiko Epson Corporation Tintenzusammensetzung für das Tintenstrahlaufzeichnen und Tintenstrahl-Aufzeichnungsverfahren
US5643357A (en) 1995-12-08 1997-07-01 Xerox Corporation Liquid crystalline ink compositions
JPH10279869A (ja) * 1997-02-07 1998-10-20 Citizen Watch Co Ltd 記録液、及び記録液の評価方法
EP1093918A2 (de) 1999-10-13 2001-04-25 Hewlett-Packard Company, A Delaware Corporation System und Verfahren zur Regelung der Temperatur eines Tintenstrahldruckkopfes unter Verwendung einer dynamischen Pulsbreiteneinstellung
EP1122288A1 (de) 2000-01-31 2001-08-08 Hewlett-Packard Company Tintenstrahldrucktinten-Zusammensetzungen mit guter Frost-Auftau Stabilität
US6422676B1 (en) 2001-06-19 2002-07-23 Hewlett-Packard Company Compact ink jet printhead
US20020109764A1 (en) 1994-02-10 2002-08-15 Nathan Hale Printed media produced by permanent heat activated printing process
US6443551B1 (en) * 1999-08-27 2002-09-03 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for forming image using image forming liquid enveloped in image non-forming liquid
US6578958B2 (en) * 2001-03-22 2003-06-17 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Inkjet recording method and apparatus and ink therefor

Patent Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20020109764A1 (en) 1994-02-10 2002-08-15 Nathan Hale Printed media produced by permanent heat activated printing process
EP0767225A2 (de) 1995-10-06 1997-04-09 Seiko Epson Corporation Tintenzusammensetzung für das Tintenstrahlaufzeichnen und Tintenstrahl-Aufzeichnungsverfahren
US5643357A (en) 1995-12-08 1997-07-01 Xerox Corporation Liquid crystalline ink compositions
JPH10279869A (ja) * 1997-02-07 1998-10-20 Citizen Watch Co Ltd 記録液、及び記録液の評価方法
US6443551B1 (en) * 1999-08-27 2002-09-03 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for forming image using image forming liquid enveloped in image non-forming liquid
EP1093918A2 (de) 1999-10-13 2001-04-25 Hewlett-Packard Company, A Delaware Corporation System und Verfahren zur Regelung der Temperatur eines Tintenstrahldruckkopfes unter Verwendung einer dynamischen Pulsbreiteneinstellung
EP1122288A1 (de) 2000-01-31 2001-08-08 Hewlett-Packard Company Tintenstrahldrucktinten-Zusammensetzungen mit guter Frost-Auftau Stabilität
US6578958B2 (en) * 2001-03-22 2003-06-17 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Inkjet recording method and apparatus and ink therefor
US6422676B1 (en) 2001-06-19 2002-07-23 Hewlett-Packard Company Compact ink jet printhead

Non-Patent Citations (4)

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Title
G. Karlstrom; "A new model for upper and lower critical solution temperatures in Poly(ethylene oxide) solutions"; J. Phys. Chem., 1985, (89), pp 4962-4964.
J.C. Ravey, et al; "Properties of fluorinated non-ionic surfactant-based systems and comparison with non-florinated systems", Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Enginnering Aspects, 84(1994), pp 11-31.
Kozo Shinoda et al, "Emulsions and Solubilization" pp. 32-53.
M. Kahlweit, et al; Phase behavior on ternary systems of the type H20-Oil-Nonionic amphiphile (microemulsions), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 24(1985), pp 654-668.

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7927416B2 (en) 2006-10-31 2011-04-19 Sensient Colors Inc. Modified pigments and methods for making and using the same
US8147608B2 (en) 2006-10-31 2012-04-03 Sensient Colors Llc Modified pigments and methods for making and using the same
US8163075B2 (en) 2006-10-31 2012-04-24 Sensient Colors Llc Inks comprising modified pigments and methods for making and using the same
US20080259114A1 (en) * 2007-04-20 2008-10-23 Hewlett-Packard Development Company Lp Print head cleaning fluid condensation
US7964033B2 (en) 2007-08-23 2011-06-21 Sensient Colors Llc Self-dispersed pigments and methods for making and using the same
US8118924B2 (en) 2007-08-23 2012-02-21 Sensient Colors Llc Self-dispersed pigments and methods for making and using the same
US9221986B2 (en) 2009-04-07 2015-12-29 Sensient Colors Llc Self-dispersing particles and methods for making and using the same

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE602004003867D1 (de) 2007-02-08
EP1500510A1 (de) 2005-01-26
DE602004003867T2 (de) 2007-05-16
EP1500510B1 (de) 2006-12-27
JP2005041227A (ja) 2005-02-17
US20050018025A1 (en) 2005-01-27
JP4115971B2 (ja) 2008-07-09

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